Okay, I can’t remember the title or author of a particular short story I’m remembering and it’s driving me fucking nuts. I’m hoping that someone who reads this will remember and will clue me in. I’ve already asked around on facebook, ask.com, and askville but got nothing. This is my last hope.

In the story, I remember that there is this young guy who sneaks into this old guy’s garden. He finds a girl there and falls in love with her. He thinks she is the old guy’s daughter and that the old guy is keeping her secret from the world so no young guys get her. She falls in love with him too, being the first guy she’s seen other than her father. They hear her father coming and the young guy goes to snatch her away. Unfortunately, he breaks her off at the root and she dies.

You see, apparently the old guy was experimenting with plants. Guess he must have been some plant genius or something, because he grew himself a daughter. This young guy was so in love with the girl that he apparently didn’t notice that she grew from the ground. Typical. I guess it must have been dark.

I read this story a while ago, but I started thinking about it again after reading Hoffmann’s “The Sandman.” I really want to find it again so I can compare, but I can’t remember the title or the author.

Frankly, I can’t even remember what the context of the story was. I’ve gone through so many different periods of reading that it could be an old author like Hawthorne (No, before you say it the story isn’t “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” The girl isn’t a plant in that story), a newer author writing like an older author, or anything. I thought it felt like Romantic Gothic, but it could be a modern writer writing like Romantic Gothic. It could even be a mythos writer writing outside of strict mythos characters. It could be anything. I’m stumped.

Does this story sound familiar to anyone at all? I can’t be the only person who ever read it. Someone out there has to know.

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About David S. Atkinson

David S. Atkinson enjoys typing about himself in the third person, although he does not generally enjoy speaking in such a fashion. However, he is concerned about the Kierkegaard quote "Once you label me you negate me." He worries that if he attempts to define himself he will, in fact, nullify his existence...

4 Responses to Anybody Remember This Short Story? This Is Driving Me Fucking Nuts.

Hi David, I posted your question to a forum on LibraryThing called Name That Book. Hopefully someone there remembers. Here’s the link: http://www.librarything.com/topic/140798
I’ll check back in if I hear anything.